House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 26 Oct 2009 (pt 0024)

26 Oct 2009 : Column 116W—continued

Export Credits Guarantee Department

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to note 37 to the Export Credits Guarantee Department resource accounts for 2008-09, the annual accounts for First Securitisation Company Limited, published in June 2009, and the most recent annual returns of Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc and First Securitisation Company Limited, what the ownership structure is of Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc. [292972]

Ian Lucas: The Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc is owned by two charitable trust companies, First Securitisation Company Limited ("FSCL") and Capita IRG Trustees Limited. The Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc has issued 50,000 £1 shares and, of these, FSCL holds 49,999 and Capita IRG Trustees Limited holds one.

Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for what reasons the accounts of Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc do not meet the individual criteria for consolidation in the Government Financial Reporting Manual, as referred to in note 37 of the resource accounts of the Export Credits Guarantee Department for 2008-09. [292970]

Ian Lucas: With regard to ECGD's 2008-09 Resource Accounts, Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc fell outside the departmental accounting boundary as defined in section 2.4 of the Financial Reporting Manual ("FReM") with which ECGD is required to comply in its preparing Resource Accounts. On this basis, ECGD was not required to consolidate Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc into its Resource Accounts.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the implications are for the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) of the ownership of Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc by two charitable trust companies, as referred to in note 37 to the resource accounts of the ECGD for 2008-09. [292971]

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Ian Lucas: The ownership of the Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation plc by two charitable trusts has no implications for ECGD's 2008-09 Resource Accounts. The nature of the transactions between ECGD and Guaranteed Export Finance Corporation are as described in note 37 to ECGD's Resource Accounts for 2008-09.

Higher Education

Stephen Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how
26 Oct 2009 : Column 118W
much his Department and its predecessors spent on increasing the retention rate in higher education in each of the last five years. [294328]

Mr. Lammy: In addition to its core teaching funding, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) provides institutions with additional funding to help support student retention. The total amounts for the last five academic years are as follows:

£
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Full Time Students	159,353,247	166,640,907	184,128,520	188,582,804	192,875,340
Part Time Students	53,883,613	54,283,169	55,763,058	57,351,573	60,292,489
Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)

We maintain very good completion rates for first degrees-OECD statistics show that the UK ranks third of 27 countries. This has been achieved and maintained during aperiod when higher education has been opened up to both increased numbers and a greater diversity of students.

Higher Education: Age Participation Rates

Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the rate of participation by 18 year olds resident in each region of England in higher education has been in each year since 2003-04. [293185]

Mr. Lammy: This information is currently only available for the years 2005-06 and 2006-07. Nationally, the latest figures show that some 31 per cent. of young people who were in maintained schools at age 15 in 2002/03 had progressed to HE by age 19 by 2006/07. This latest percentage is derived from the matched Higher Education Statistics-National Pupil Database-Individual Learning Record dataset and reflects those persons who progress to HE in 2005/06 at age 18 or in 2006/07 at age 19.

The figures for each Government office region (GOR) are shown in the table. Children aged 15 were allocated to each GOR based on the location of the school they attended.

Percentage of 15-year-old students in maintained schools in England who progressed to higher education by age 19-split by Government office region
	2005-06^{( 1)}	2006-07^{( 2)}
London	35	36
West Midlands	29	30
North West	29	30
Yorkshire and the Humber	27	27
North East	27	27
South West	29	29
East of England	30	30
South East	32	32
East Midlands	30	30
England	30	31
⁽¹⁾ Percentage of children aged 15 attending maintained schools in 2001-02 who progressed to higher education by 2005-06 by age 19 ⁽²⁾ Percentage of children aged 15 attending maintained schools in 2002-03 who progressed to higher education by 2006-07 by age 19 Source: Matched Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), National Pupil Database (NPD) and Individual Learner Record (ILR)

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Table 1: Full-Time Undergraduate entrants from West Suffolk Parliamentary Constituency^{( 1)} UK Higher Education Institutions^{( 2)} : Academic years 2003-04 to 2007-08
	2003-04		2004-05		2005-06		2006-07		2007-08
Socio economic classification	Under 21	21 and over	Under 21	21 and over	Under 21	21 and over	Under 21	21 and over	Under 21	21 and over
Higher managerial and professional occupations	55	5	50	5	50	0	55	5	55	0
Lower managerial and professional occupations	55	5	80	5	70	5	85	0	100	15
Intermediate occupations	30	5	25	5	35	5	30	5	45	10
Small employers and own account workers	10	0	20	0	30	0	20	0	20	0
Lower supervisory and technical occupations	10	0	15	0	15	0	20	0	20	0
Semi-routine occupations	20	5	30	5	30	10	30	5	35	5
Routine occupations	5	0	15	5	15	0	15	0	20	10
Missing⁽³⁾	60	40	50	55	65	55	70	35	85	30
⁽¹⁾ The table does not include entrants whose constituency cannot be established due to missing or invalid home postcodes. ⁽²⁾ Excludes the Open University due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. ⁽³⁾ Includes those classified as "Never worked and long-term unemployed", "Not classified" and "Missing". Notes: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

Higher Education: Russell Group

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of pupils in state education at the age of 17 years who subsequently studied at Russell Group universities in the latest period for which information is available. [295585]

Mr. Lammy: The information is not currently available in the form requested. There may be possibilities for deriving a valid progression statistic for 17-year-olds from the matched Higher Education Statistics, National Pupil dataset and Individual Learning Record but such analysis has not been carried out to date. Developing a sufficiently robust approach and quality assuring the results could be completed only at disproportionate cost. Therefore, the following figures have been provided as an alternative.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show in the 2007-08 academic year, 35,390 18-year-old full-time undergraduate entrants whose previous institution was either a state school or FE college attended Russell Group HE institutions in the UK. This equates to 25 per cent. of all 18-year-old full-time undergraduate entrants to HE from state schools or FE colleges. Figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in January 2010.

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the proportion of pupils from each socio-economic group in state secondary education who subsequently studied at Russell Group universities in the latest period for which information is available. [295586]

Mr. Lammy: It is estimated that 6 per cent. of young people who were in English maintained schools and aged 15 at the start of academic year 2002-03, progressed to HE at a Russell Group institution by the age of 19 (in 2006-07).

The following table shows the composition of this group by each socio-economic group. Figures for 2007-08 will be available in 2010.

Pupils aged 15 at the start of the 2002-03 academic year, in English maintained schools, who progressed to HE at a Russell Group institution by the age of 19 in 2006-07: Socio-economic breakdown
Socio-economic classification	Proportion (percentage)
Higher managerial and professional occupations	25
Lower managerial and professional occupations	28
Intermediate occupations	11
Small employers and own account workers	5
Lower supervisory and technical occupations	3
Semi-routine occupations	7
Routine occupations	3
Missing⁽¹⁾	18
⁽¹⁾ Includes those classified as missing, not classified and never worked and long term unemployed. Source: Matched data from the National Pupil Database, the Higher Education Statistics Agency Student Record and the Learning and Skills Council Individualised Learner Record.

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